NMR: Hot Tub Time Machine

In a similar vein to Snakes on a Plane, the title ended up being better than the actual movie. This had a lot of potential and hardly utilized any of it. Instead, it borrowed ideas from a ton of other better movies and then relied on gross-out gags to get them the rest of the way. Perhaps this movie could have been better, but they advertised the hell out of it and as a result I felt like I had already seen most of the movie. A key factor in films is the 'hang out' factor in that you should ask yourself did you enjoy hanging out with these characters and would you want to continue to hang out with them. That would be a big, fat NO from me for this movie. All of these guys are losers and not in the loveable sort of way. Most of the time they are miserable in the 80s and when they are having fun, it's not the sort of fun I would like to have. Another problem is the major plot holes found in this movie. I know it's a comedy and it shouldn't matter and that there are always going to be logic gaps when dealing with time travel, but in this case some simple tweaks to the script could have improved things greatly. There are only two things that save this film from being a complete disaster; first is the shout out they give to Cleveland sports and second is Crispin Glover's presence in the film. Glover was not seen in any of the commercials and his whole subplot is hilarious. It seemed that the only times I laughed out loud was when he was on screen. For the rest of the movie, I need my own time machine so I can go back and warn myself not to watch this disappointment. Rating **1/2